LANSING — The State of Michigan can be sued over allegations that the contamination of Flint's drinking water damaged the health of residents and hurt the value of their properties, a Michigan Court of Claims judge has ruled.

Judge Mark Boonstra, in an opinion issued Wednesday, said that if proven true, allegations brought against Gov. Rick Snyder and other defendants by Melissa Mays and other Flint residents, "shock the conscience."

Boonstra dismissed two counts against the state, but said two other counts may proceed to trial.

The lawsuit can proceed on allegations the state violated the due process clause of the state constitution by failing to protect Flint residents' "bodily integrity," Boonstra ruled. The suit can also proceed on allegations that state actions were a substantial cause of decline in Flint property values and the state "abused its powers" by "continuing to supply each water user with corrosive and contaminated water," he said in a 50-page opinion released Thursday.

Boonstra dismissed two constitutional claims — one related to a state-created danger and one related to fair and just treatment.

Significantly, he also ruled that former Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose — both named as defendants in the lawsuit — were "state actors" in Flint, not local actors, as lawyers for the State of Michigan had argued.

In allowing parts of the lawsuit to proceed, Boonstra said he was not accepting the truth of the allegations against the state, but determining whether Mays and the other plaintiffs would have a valid claim, should their allegations be proven true.

Mays and the other plaintiffs "have pleaded sufficient facts, if proven, that the actions taken by the state actors were so arbitrary, in a constitutional sense, as to shock the conscience," Boonstra wrote.

"Plaintiffs allege that it was state actors who made the decisions to switch to the Flint River as the source of drinking water, after a period of deliberation, despite knowledge of the danger posed by the water, without a state-conducted scientific assessment of the suitability of using water from the Flint River ... and with knowledge of the inadequacies of Flint's water treatment plant," the judge wrote.

"They also allege that various state actors intentionally concealed data and made false statements in an attempt to downplay the health dangers posed by using Flint's tap water, despite possessing scientific data and actual knowledge that the water supply reaching the taps of Flint water users was contaminated with Legionella bacteria and dangerously high levels of toxic lead..."

These allegations, "if true, may be fairly characterized as being so outrageous as to be 'truly conscience shocking,' " Boonstra wrote.